Thursday, 22 September 2016

More on Kerry tearing up his agreement with Lavrov

In
comments to the UN Security Council US Secretary of State Kerry
effectively tears up Lavrov - Kerry Agreement and demands that
protection from bombing be extended to Al-Qaeda's regional branch
Jabhat Al-Nusra.

The
impossibility of achieving a workable ceasefire in Syria was made
clear by a blustering speech US Secretary of State Kerry made to the
UN Security Council on 21st September 2016.

Possibly
alarmed that European governments – including especially the German
government – are failing to support US claims the relief convoy
attacked near Aleppo was bombed by the Russian air force; and by the
fact that the UN appears to have dropped its assertion that the
convoy was bombed from the air; and perhaps even more alarmed by
Russian demands for an independent investigation of the whole
incident; Kerry went on the attack, listing what he said were Russian
claims about the incident, which he either misrepresented, or
represented in such a way as to make them look inconsistent and
contradictory, when in reality they are no such thing.

More
to the point, Kerry also demanded the grounding of the Syrian air
force over what he called ‘the contested areas’ of northern
Syria.

This
is a strange demand to make in the immediate aftermath of the attack
on the relief convoy.

The
US says off-the-record that it was the Russian air force that
attacked the convoy. However Kerry is demanding that the Syrian air
force – which no one claims carried out the attack – should be
the one to be grounded.

Presumably
somebody subsequently realised the lack of logic in this demand,
since some Western media reports of Kerry’s comments are giving the
impression that Kerry demanded the grounding of both the Syrian and
the Russian air forces. The full text of his remarks released by the
US State Department however shows this was not the case.

Putting
all that aside, Kerry speech was in essence a reversion to a demand
the US made following the previous cessation of hostilities agreement
in February: that the Syrian air force – and implicitly also the
Russian air force – cease bombing Jabhat Al-Nusra even though
Jabhat Al-Nusra is a terrorist organisation which is expressly
excluded from the ceasefire. Here is how Kerry justified it

“Now,
I have said to Russia many times it’s very hard to separate people
when they are being bombed indiscriminately and when Assad has the
right to determine who he’s going to bomb, because he can, quote,
“go after Nusrah” but go after the opposition at the same time
because he wants to. You create a confusion that is impossible to
separate out, and therefore preserve the ceasefire.

So
we need to get to the prohibition on flying, my friends. That would
prevent Syria from doing what it has done so often in the past, which
is to attack civilian targets with the excuse that it is just going
after Nusrah. Our purpose in this negotiation was to put an end to
the kind of horrific and indiscriminate attacks that have been the
primary cause of fear, of suffering, of displacement. And under our
plan, all of this could be quickly accompanied by serious
negotiations between the parties aimed at a political transition and
a conclusion to the conflict.”

In
other words, instead of the Syrian opposition separating itself from
Jabhat Al-Nusra in order to gain the protection of the ceasefire, the
US wants the ceasefire extended to Jabhat Al-Nusra, so that the
Syrian opposition can – in a manner and date of its own choosing
and as part of a process of “political transition” (US code for
regime change) – separate itself from Jabhat Al-Nusra when it feels
like it.

The
Syrian opposition has consistently refused to separate itself from
Jabhat Al-Nusra and will never do so unless it has to. If Kerry’s
demand were accepted, then the Syrian opposition would no longer be
bombed even if it remained joined to Jabhat Al-Nusra. In that case
it would not separate itself from Jabhat Al-Nusra since it would not
have to. Jabhat Al-Nusra in the meantime would be free to attack the
Syrian military – since it would not be part of the ceasefire –
without having to fear any bombing.

In
other words what Kerry is demanding is that the Syrians and the
Russians agree to impose a no-fly zone on themselves so as to let
Jabhat Al-Nusra and the Jihadis win in order to enable regime change
to take place in Syria.

That
is an absurd demand, and Kerry surely knows it. It is also one which
– as Kerry of course also knows – the Russians have consistently
and categorically rejected whenever it has been made to them. That
Kerry is making it now in spite of all that shows that the US has
abandoned the commitment to separate the fighters it supports from
Jabhat Al-Nusra, which it made just 2 weeks ago in Geneva.

What
that means in turn is that the Kerry – Lavrov agreement is now
dead. The whole point of the agreement was that the US would
separate the fighters it supports from Jabhat Al-Nusra , in order to
secure the ceasefire. By saying that the ceasefire should be
extended to protect Jabhat Al-Nusra from bombing, the US is in effect
abandoning that commitment.

The
US is still trying to reassure its European allies – who are
becoming increasingly alarmed by the unravelling of the agreement –
that it remains committed to it, and that there is still some life in
it. Kerry’s words to the UN Security Council however tell a
different story.

This
latest attempt to end the war in Syria diplomatically has therefore
failed, and the war is set to continue.

In
the meantime it is worth emphasising that no less a person than the
US Secretary of State has now publicly said in the UN Security
Council that Jabhat Al-Nusra – an entity which the US says is a
terrorist organisation and which is the regional branch of Al-Qaeda
in Syria – the organisation which carried out the 9/11 terrorist
attacks – should not be bombed.

One
wonders what the survivors of 9/11 – and the families of the
victims – would think of that

John
Kerry went to Italy for a conference with Italian foreign Minister
Paolo Gentiloni where Kerry almost received a black eye for his
comments!

So
he went there to talk to Gentiloni about new ways to fight ISIS
terrorists. However, Kerry supposedly supports the expansion of ISIS
to which one of the reporters in the conference got up and charged at
him with a “It was YOU who created ISIS!”. Fists raised and fire
in her eyes, Kerry almost got a black eye!

Well
if he did help create ISIS and really wants to support it, I can’t
say he wouldn’t have deserved it if she gave him a black eye! Yet,
she was simply escorted out and left the room.

KERRY
URGES FOR NO FLY ZONES IN SYRIA TO SAVE TRUCE, DELIVERS OF
HUMANITARIAN AID

At
a UN Security Council meeting, the US Secretary of State, John
Kerry, blamed President Bashar Assad for violations of the
ceasefire in Syria and added that Assad “does not believe in
ceasefire.”

This
is why, according to the US official, the Syrian Air
Force should be banned from flying over territories held by the
so-called “moderate opposition” (most likely Kerry meant Jabhat
al-Nusra or Jund
al-Aqsa).

Kerry
emphasized that this shouldbe done in order to deliver humanitarian
aid in northern Syria.

He
also said that the attack on the aid convoy raise “profound doubt”
over whether Russia and Syria would live up to the Geneva deal.
Unofrutnately, he forgot to added that there are no proves
that the convoy was attacked by Russian or Syrian warplanes (more
here).

In
general, such a statement show that the US is not going to search a
solution of the Syrian crisis by peaceful measures and just pushing
own agenda on the diplomatic level